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TRIAL POSTPONED: Nurses Ruth Doerksen and Anagaile Soriano
were charged with criminal negligence causing death after 10-year-old
Lisa Shore, (pictured) died four years ago at the Hospital for Sick
Children.
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The trial of two Hospital for Sick Children nurses charged
last October with criminal negligence causing death has been postponed by
more than four months because the prosecution has not yet fully disclosed
its case to the defence.
Lisa Shore, 10, was found dead in her hospital bed on Oct. 22,
1998, less than 12 hours after being admitted to the emergency ward for leg
pain.
An inquest jury was told Lisa wasn't sufficiently monitored
for the effects of morphine.
Ruth Doerksen, 41, and Anagaile Soriano, 25, were to appear in
Old City Hall court on Nov. 18, for a hearing that was scheduled to last
three months.
But prosecutor Hank Goody told justice of the peace Warren
Ralph yesterday that a judge conducting a pre-trial hearing earlier in the
day postponed the case to March 31, "given all that remains to be
done."
Lawyer Marlys Edwardh, who represents Doerksen, told Ralph
that Mr. Justice Robert Bigelow postponed the trial because the crown has
not yet fully informed the defence of the case it has to meet, as required
by law.
That means the nurses are not in a position to decide whether
to have a preliminary hearing or go directly to trial.
Edwardh said prosecutors have not yet received opinions from
several expert witnesses that will have to be shared with the defence, and
legal steps have to be taken to ensure that an important witness who lives
outside Ontario attends court.
Doerksen and Soriano are currently on paid leave from the
hospital.
Outside court, Edwardh said the lengthy delay has been
"extremely stressful" for the nurses. "For any accused,
there is an anxiety that continues, and it builds and builds and builds,
and the longer there is a lack of resolution for them, the more difficult
it is for them, their families and their peers."
Goody declined comment.
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